In a speech that brought a courtroom to tears, a grief-striken Bridgewater woman told the drunk driver who took the life of her only child in 2011 just what her actions meant. "She was truly the center of our lives. Every day is a struggle. Every day seems meaningless," Patti Donahue said. Ashley Donahue, 20, was a pass...

When Patti and Paul Donahue adopted their daughter Ashley as an infant, it was a dream come true.
That dream became a nightmare when the 20-year-old Donahue was killed on Dec. 3, 2011, when, as a passenger, she was thrown from a car driven by a drunk Brooke Uttley after it hit a utility pole on Badger Road in Framingham.
"Every day we wake up hoping it’s a horrible nightmare," said a sobbing Patti Donahue of Bridgewater, delivering a victim impact statement on Wednesday in Middlesex Superior Court. "But it’s not a nightmare, it’s our life."
Uttley, now 23, pleaded guilty Wednesday to felony vehicular homicide and causing serious bodily injury while driving drunk. Holly Benson and two other people were injured.
Uttley was sentenced to four years in the house of correction, with three to serve.
"Ashley was an only child," said Patti Donahue, in a speech that brought more than 25 supporters to tears. "She was truly the center of our lives. Every day is a struggle. Every day seems meaningless.
"All of Ashley’s dreams and potential was stolen by Brooke Uttley," she said. "Brooke was the only one with the power to prevent Ashley’s death."
Prosecutor Darina Belot said Uttley, of Haverhill, hosted her own birthday party at her apartment at 57 Raymond Marchetti St. in Ashland, where she lived in while attending Framingham State University.
In the early morning, she offered to drive Donahue, Benson and the others back to the Framingham State campus.
Driving down the windy, not well-lit Badger Road, Uttley was driving an estimated 65 miles per hour in a 25-mile-per-hour zone, Belot said.
"The passengers in the vehicle asked Ms. Uttley several times during the ride to slow down," said Belot. "Ms. Uttley responded by laughing."
A witness described seeing the speeding Honda Civic crash into a utility pole and saw something thrown from the window, the prosecutor said. That "something" was Donahue, who was declared dead at the scene.
When police began their investigation, they found Uttley speaking on her cellphone telling someone everyone was OK. An officer asked if there was anyone else with her and she told him no, and said she did not want the police involved.
Along with Donahue’s death, Benson suffered serious injuries that still plague her, Belot said. She broke two vertebrate and her clavicle, and temporarily lost vision in one of her eyes.
Belot said Uttley was taken to the hospital to be treated for her injuries, and her blood was tested and her blood alcohol level was .10. The legal limit is .08.
Since her arraignment, Belot said there has been talk of Uttley routinely attending house parties in Framingham even though she lives in Haverhill. Last month, she was caught at the TGI Friday's in Framingham drinking alcohol, which was in violation of a court order not to drink. She has been jailed at MCI-Framingham since then.
Belot asked Judge S. Jane Haggerty to sentence Uttley to four to five years in state prison for the vehicular homicide charge. She also asked for a two and a half year sentence for the drunken driving charge with six months to serve after she finished her first sentence, with the rest suspended for five years.
"A sentence of four to five years in state prison is trite compared to the life sentence of that Ashley Donahue’s family is serving," Belot said.
Uttley’s lawyer, Jeffrey Denner, called the case "one of the worst tragedies I’ve ever seen."
He described Uttley as an upstanding woman who, up until the night of the accident, was "cut from the same cloth" as Donahue. He said Uttley had "a borderline IQ" and had cognitive problems.
"This is not someone remotely beyond rehabilitation," said Denner. "This is somebody who, at some point, has to be reintegrated into society."
Denner said he understood that Uttley had to go to jail, but said it won’t be easier for her.
"She’s a very frail, sensitive human being who is not going to fare well there," he said. "She is extremely fragile and she’s extremely gullible and she’ll be in a population that will take advantage of that."
In her impact statement, Patti Donahue asked Haggerty to sentence Uttley to three "actual years" in custody. Denner said he believed that to be a fair sentence.
He asked Haggerty to sentence Uttley to two years in the House of Correction for the vehicular homicide charge and two years for the drunken driving charge with one year to serve after the first sentence, and the remaining to be suspended for four years.
Haggerty, when sentencing, called the case one of the "most difficult" for a judge to determine a sentence.
"She did the unthinkable by taking the only child of the Donahues, her family, her cousins and her friends," said Haggerty, who said Uttley’s life has become a nightmare. "The difference is her nightmare will end. It won’t end for the Donahues."
In deciding the sentence, Haggerty said "She’s not an evil person. She’s doesn’t have an evil heart."
Haggerty adopted Denner’s recommendations for incarceration. In addition, she ordered Uttley to attend every available Alcoholics Anonymous meeting while in custody and then three meetings a week for the four years she is on probation after she is released.
Uttley will also have to do 100 hours of community service when released. She is also ordered to not have any contact with the Donahues or to drink any alcohol or do drugs. Uttley will also lose her driver's license for 15 years.
During her impact statement, Patti Donahue asked that Uttley be ordered to go to six different high schools to talk about the repercussions that bad decisions can have, and to tell the students exactly what she did. Haggerty agreed with the recommendation, ordering Uttley to do so after her release.
"Maybe you’ll touch them," Haggerty said.
Uttley immediately began serving her sentence at MCI-Framingham Wednesday.
Norman Miller can be reached at 508-626-3823 or nmiller@wickedlocal.com. For up-to-date crime news, follow Norman Miller on Twitter at @Norman_MillerMW.READ MORE about the crash